"Spirit bears" are black bears, their genes have mutated and they are now pure white! They live in the Pacific NW and are fish eaters, eating a lot of salmon when they are spawning and running up rivers and waterfalls in the Great Bear Rainforest. Their population is small, may be only 500 animals. It would take a lot of effort to see them in the wild, and a lot of luck.
There are legends from first nations people that the black bears turned white to remind people of a time when glaciers covered the land and people should be thankful for the lush landscape today. I love this sentiment.
I made this piece using 3 woodblocks that I carved and printed and carved and printed then overlapped to get it to this scale. I would not be able to register a block this size and print it because I tell ya, woodblocks are heavy!
edition of 9
Image size 27”x39.5”
Paper size 30”x41.5”
Title: Spirit Bears of the Great Bear Rainforest